On Wednesday night, the Vancouver Canucks tested just how close to game time a game-time decision can be.
After missing 25 days, six Canucks games, and the 4 Nations Face-Off to an oblique injury, Quinn Hughes was a game-time decision for the Canucks as they faced the Los Angeles Kings.
Hughes took the ice for warm-up but didn’t skate in the usual rotation of lines and pairs. When the broadcast team got the official lineups ahead of the game, Hughes was listed as a scratch, and Sportsnet’s Dan Murphy and Brendan Batchelor reported as much.
Just a few minutes later, they reversed course, reporting that Hughes was, in fact, in the lineup, with Arshdeep Bains coming out. According to head coach Rick Tocchet, it was a close call.
“It was getting down to 11 minutes and Huggy called me into the medical room and we had a little bit of a talk,” said head coach Rick Tocchet. “He kind of persuaded me…It was the eight-minute mark and we had to tell Bainsy he was not playing.
“That’s probably the longest I’ve ever gone without making a lineup sheet. I don’t know what the wire is — I think it’s seven minutes. You’ve got to get your lineup in, so I think we had about 90 seconds left.”
According to Rule 5.1 in the NHL rulebook, the deadline is quite a bit sooner than seven minutes before puck drop.
“It is the policy of the National Hockey League that the Manager or Coach of the visiting team submit, using the NHL Game Line-up Management application, a list of eligible players within five (5) minutes of the completion of the warm-up (twenty (20) minutes prior to face-off).”
Side note: the NHL has an app for submitting a game-day lineup. That shouldn’t be a surprise but given the sheer number of things I see the NHL still print out on paper, it kind of is. For what it’s worth, the rulebook from just last season makes no mention of the app, so I’m curious to know just how new it is.
In any case, it appears that the Canucks pushed a little beyond the prescribed limits of when they’re supposed to submit their lineup. Or maybe they didn’t.
When Tocchet said he let Bains know he wasn’t in the lineup at the eight-minute mark, he presumably means eight minutes on the countdown clock in the locker room. In the intermission, that counts down to when they need to take the ice for the start of the next period but, at the start of the game, there’s a long gap between when they take the ice and when the puck actually drops for the opening faceoff, as they leave time for announcing the starting lineups, national anthems, ceremonial faceoffs, and other rigmarole.
Maybe the eight-minute mark on their clock combined with the time before puckdrop meant the Canucks did meet the NHL’s deadline. In any case, Hughes played in the game, so it all worked out.
I just find these types of details interesting. Now I just want to see the NHL Game Line-up Management app. Regrettably, it’s not on the App Store.
Yes, I actually checked the App Store after I watched this game.
- This definitely might only be interesting to me, but the part of the NHL rulebook that covers when a team must submit their lineup is part of Rule 5, which is about the make-up and responsibilities of a team. Up until this season, it was part of rule 33, which is about the responsibilities of the Official Scorer. Specifically, it was Rule 33.3.
- Scratching Bains to put Hughes in the lineup meant the Canucks went with the unusual lineup of seven defencemen and 11 forwards, letting them ease Hughes in. After all, the last thing the Canucks need at this point is for Hughes to aggravate his injury and end up on the shelf for another four weeks. At least, easing him in was the plan.
- “I had a discussion with Rick and Footey after warm-ups,” said Hughes. “I don’t know what I ended up playing today but I think the plan was to kind of lower my minutes and get me back into the game smoothly. Try to get 15-16 minutes and survive the night and then hopefully, build some confidence to be ready to go tomorrow and Saturday.”
- So, about that plan…Hughes ended up second on the Canucks in ice time, playing 21:38 instead of the planned 15-16 minutes. By Hughes’ standards, of course, that is easing him in. That’s his sixth-lowest ice time of the season.
- “It’s very frustrating. It’s a slow process, it was day-by-day,” said Hughes. “I’m really thankful to our medical group, who did a great job with me. I’m just going to have to keep building. Can’t say I felt my best tonight but I got through the game and hopefully, I can build confidence from there.”
- Hughes’ return didn’t immediately translate into higher-event hockey for the Canucks but that’s partly because they were playing the stingy Kings. The Canucks managed just 17 shots on net, though they also held the Kings to just 26 shots. Games that go to overtime should be thrillers; this was more of a “Privacy.”
- That’s not to say that Hughes didn’t make a difference. It was just very clear that he had just spent nearly a month without playing a game and it took him a bit of time to get back up to speed. When he did, he assisted on the game-winning goal, so yeah, he helped a bit.
- “Top-three player in the world, just fantastic,” said Conor Garland of Hughes. “A leader in the room and on the ice. He’s so big for us and obviously a big boost for us when we saw he was playing.”
- Garland, incidentally, was the Canucks’ actual best player in this game. He scored two goals, led the Canucks with four shots on goal, and made some strong defensive plays to boot. Seems like he was happy the godfather of his child was back in the lineup.
- “He was a beast tonight. I thought even in the first period, he was probably our best player,” said Hughes of Garland. “Creating chances, competitive, all over the ice, that’s what we’re going to need from him.”
- After some strong performances in the last couple of games, Nils Höglander got promoted to the top line with Elias Pettersson and Jake DeBrusk. It paid off. Sort of. Höglander scored the opening goal — his first goal in eight games — but it was while he was taking a turn with Teddy Blueger and Kiefer Sherwood on the fourth line. Just when he thought he was out, they pulled him back in.
- It was a gorgeous goal too. Derek Forbort picked the puck out of a scrambled faceoff in the defensive zone and hit Höglander with a breakout pass as crisp as a new five-dollar bill. Then Höglander gained the offensive zone and, as Kiefer Sherwood drove the middle lane to push back the defence, Höglander cut through the high slot to get David Rittich moving and flung the puck into the top corner over his glove.
- Rittich complained that Sherwood hit his glove with his stick and yes, he absolutely did, but the puck was already well past Rittich before that happened. Rittich barely even reacted to the shot because it was such a subtle release from Höglander.
- One of my favourite things is when Tyler Myers, completely out of nowhere, becomes a brilliant offensive defenceman. He’s got just 3 goals and 18 points this season but then he pulls of something like this: faking out his check at the point, driving up the right side for a scoring chance that he rung off the post, then staying up in the play and curling into the slot for another scoring chance. That version of Tyler Myers is a rare sight but it’s always a treat when he shows up.
- The second power play unit chipped in a goal to make it 2-0 in the second period. Garland lost his stick in the corner and the Kings’ penalty kill subsequently lost Garland as he retrieved it. He surreptitiously slipped into the slot and finished off a sweetil feedil from Chytil. As Garland scored, he got hit hard by Mikey Anderson and he ended up under the King like he was some sort of Duke.
- The best part of the goal was Dakota Joshua’s little shimmy to celebrate with Garland. They’re just two friends. Two good friends. Two best friends.
Can confirm: Dak is the best hype man (watch 'til the end). pic.twitter.com/BqAh3MqwZo
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) February 27, 2025
- Unfortunately, the Canucks then started playing with fire, which is a really terrible thing to do in a sport that takes place entirely on ice. Fire melts ice, you guys! Stop playing with it!
- The Kings outshot the Canucks 11-to-4 in the third period, so it seemed inevitable they would score. Adrian Kempe got the Kings on the board by attacking with speed through the neutral zone to back up the defence. Tyler Myers tried to get his stick in to disrupt Kempe’s shot but instead the puck ramped up Myer’s blade and went top corner past Kevin Lankinen.
- “They were flying through the middle, they were starting to go, and we didn’t pick them up,” said Tocchet. “For whatever reason, we were standing still in the neutral zone and we gave them life by giving them the middle of the ice. That’s something that I can’t stand. I think they got about four rushes and I think it put us on our heels, to be honest with you.”
- At one point, Garland blocked a shot with his stick and immediately moved his lower hand to cover up the spot where the puck hit the shaft, clearly trying to convince someone — perhaps even himself — that his stick wasn’t actually broken. Eventually, he gave up and dropped his stick but then made a great play along the boards to kick the puck out of the defensive zone. Can he kick it? Yes, he can.
- Garland’s stick was still sitting in the defensive zone when the Kings tied the game a couple of minutes later. Jordan Spence sent a one-timer wide of the net but Warren “McLovin” Foegele pulled it back with lovely tip. Was it a high stick? Well…maybe. What it definitely wasn’t was goaltender interference, which is what the Canucks challenged the goal for, perhaps because you can’t challenge for a high stick. Maybe they were hoping the extra time given by the challenge would give the NHL situation room more time to see if it was a high stick. Instead, it just gave the Canucks a penalty to kill late in the third period in a tie game.
- “He hit his blocker but he wasn’t in the crease from the angle,” said Tocchet. “My mistake. If he had his foot in the crease, I think it would have been no goal, but because he was out of the crease — we thought he hit his blocker.”
- The Canucks killed off the penalty and nearly scored immediately after, as Filip Chytil, who was serving the penalty, came out of the box and snuck a puck through Rittich that hit the post, then spun to a stop in the crease an inch from the goal line. Honestly, the puck got through Rittich so easily that you have to think the Canucks could have scored a hoard of goals if they had managed more than 17 shots.
- The game went to overtime, where Hughes made a rare miscue, as he lost an edge and fell to the ice. That led to Drew O’Connor making a desperation play to prevent a Kevin Fiala scoring chance, sweeping the puck off Fiala’s stick but tripping him in the process. Some might think it shouldn’t be a penalty because he got the puck first, but they’ve changed that rule: if you leave your feet, it doesn’t matter if you get the puck first, and O’Connor going down to one knee counts as him leaving his feet.
- There was a scary moment on the subsequent penalty kill, as a puck deflected off Teddy Blueger’s stick directly into Tyler Myers’ throat. Myers was in the type of distress that you absolutely hate to see on the ice. My immediate fear from his reaction was that he was having trouble breathing and might have a broken trachea, which can be life-threatening. Thankfully, that doesn’t appear to be the case.
- “Right in the neck. I think it hit a nerve. He was dizzy,” said Tocchet. “He might be okay for tomorrow, we might have dodged a bullet.”
- Marcus Pettersson, Derek Forbort, and Teddy Blueger were fantastic on the rest of the penalty kill, particularly Pettersson, who made a diving pokecheck to prevent an open net on a rebound and got a couple of good clears. Forbort, however, had the biggest literal impact, as he hammered Anze Kopitar into the boards on a zone entry, which actually took out two players because Quinton Byfield wasted a moment trying to start a fight with Forbort before remembering that he was on the power play in overtime.
- “The penalty kill was huge,” said Tocchet. “We missed the challenge and then we got the penalty in overtime, so to kill those two penalties off — a lot of guts, gotta give a lot of guys credit.”
- After the penalty kill, it remained 4-on-4 instead of 3-on-3. Hughes was champing at the bit to get back on the ice after his earlier mistake. He took a pass from Chytil and skated deep down the left side before dropping the puck back to Garland, who cut inside, used Brandt Clarke as a screen, and went top corner where heathens dogear their books.
- “I actually thought I was going to go to Chytil coming around the net,” said Garland. “I tried that in Detroit — kind of a similar play — and they took it down in our end and scored, so there was a little bit of a spot there and I thought I could hit it and got fortunate.”
- Here’s the Detroit goal that Garland was referencing. It’s not the exact same situation but it’s close. It’s just nice to see a Canuck with a clear scoring opportunity actually shoot the puck. Please, tell your friends! Spread the good news! Shooting leads to scoring goals! Tell everyone you know!
